Regional Streetlight Program

Energy

Overview

The Regional Streetlight Program assisted 11 local governments with purchasing utility-owned streetlights, managed a regional LED retrofit project, and continues to provide operations and maintenance support to participating agencies.

The Regional Streetlight Program was designed to facilitate the sale of over 50,000 utility-owned streetlights to 11 local governments in Western Riverside County, and provides streetlight LED conversion and maintenance services. As one of WRCOG’s most extensive energy efficiency programs, this initiative will generate up to $70 million dollars over 20-years in net savings and reduce annual energy use by 17.4 million kWh. In addition to cost savings and reducing energy consumption, WRCOG secured and will disburse over $3.6 million dollars in utility rebates to the participating agencies.

Participating Agencies

City of Eastvale*
City of Hemet
City of Lake Elsinore
City of Menifee
City of Moreno Valley*
City of Murrieta
City of Perris
City of San Jacinto
City of Temecula*
City of Wildomar
Jurupa Community Services District

*This public agency has exited the Program and therefore procures and/or provides its own streetlight maintenance services.

Before and after example of a LED retrofit on a residential street in the City of Murrieta.

Program Metrics

Streetlights Purchased From Utility: 49,057 lamps (48,759 poles)
LED Streetlight Conversions: 53,905 lamps (53,587 poles)
Annual Utility Savings: $5,004,837.73
Annual Energy Savings: 17,422,681.14 kWh
- equivalent of 2,086 residential homes annual electricity use
- equivalent of emissions reductions from taking 2,661 cars off the road each year
LED Rebates Back to Agencies: $3,639,693

Presentation of Rebate checks to the Cities of Eastvale and Murrieta.

Some benefits to converting the streetlights to LED are:

reduced electricity bills
lower energy consumption
improved public safety and roadway visibility
less light pollution
even light distribution, with fewer dark areas
longer lifespan

One of the emerging topics in local government is the topic of smart cities. While there is no universally agreed upon definition of a smart city, it can be defined as one that responds to its citizens’ needs in new and improved ways. A smart city is an approach to urbanization that uses innovative technologies to enhance community services and economic opportunities, improves city infrastructure, reduces costs and resource consumption, and increases civic engagement.

As part of the Regional Streetlight Program, WRCOG developed a Smart Streetlights Implementation Plan and Broadband Assessment to identify opportunities for member agencies to leverage streetlighting infrastructure to implement smart city technologies and promote development of broadband networks. This Plan includes a peer review of existing smart city projects and programs by other cities, and an analysis of smart city technologies that can be used for various applications, including:

Economic
Mobility
Public Safety
Environmental / Sustainability
Connectivity / Asset Management

The Smart Streetlight Implementation Plan included a review of procurement strategies, such as public-private partnerships, licensing agreements, and outright purchases using grants. The Plan also included an implementation strategy that public agencies can use to implement smart city technologies.

WRCOG Smart Streetlights Implementation Plan

A key requirement for smart cities is broadband access. Within Riverside County, there are several previous and on-going efforts to identify broadband gaps, review development opportunities, and facilitate development of public and private broadband networks. At the request of the City of Jurupa Valley, WRCOG included a Broadband Assessment with the Smart Streetlights Implementation Plan to assess existing regional broadband efforts and inform WRCOG and its member agencies on the potential for additional efforts to encourage development of broadband networks in western Riverside County.

The Broadband Assessment includes a peer review of the County of Riverside’s RIVCO Connect initiative, the Inland Empire Regional Broadband Consortium’s initiatives, the South Bay Cities Council of Government’s Fiber Network, and two municipal broadband providers in the Inland Empire.

WRCOG Broadband Assessment

Riverside County is one of the first governing bodies in the world to restrict outdoor lighting to preserve the darkness of the night sky. While the intent of limiting light pollution was to benefit a nearby observatory, it is also considered by many to be a significant contribution to the quality of life in the County. Light pollution may be reduced by use of LED street lighting due to the ability to accurately direct light onto the street, thereby reducing overall light output, light intrusion on nearby areas, and upward light. To depict this, WRCOG organized for “before” and “after” nighttime ground and aerial photographs to be taken of communities in the subregion where the streetlights were converted to LED.

Aerial photo of a before and after of a LED retrofit in the City of Temecula

Aerial photo of a before and after of a LED retrofit in the City of Jurupa Valley

As part of the Regional Streetlight Program, a group of modern lighting regulation documents and resources, called the LightSuite, has been developed for use by WRCOG member agencies and public agencies. In addition to ensuring that all LED lighting complies with County outdoor lighting regulations, AMA recommendations, and CalTech’s Mt. Palomar Observatory recommendations, LightSuite proposes modernization to all existing ordinances and coordinates them with the State of California’s outdoor lighting regulations put in place since 2006. Properly implemented, LightSuite will help improve planning, permitting and enforcement in every community, and help the County of Riverside maintain its status as one of the largest dark sky preserves in populated areas of Southern California.

WRCOG LightSuite

In 2016-2017, WRCOG partnered with the City of Hemet to implement an LED Streetlight Demonstration Area to gather feedback on new lighting technologies that were considered for widespread use as part of the Program. Over 100 people attended five Streetlight Demonstration Area tours in City consisting of members of the public, elected officials, city staff, law enforcement, astronomers, and scientists. Click on the links below for demonstration photos and results:

2016 Streetlight Tours Photo Album

Streetlight Survey Demonstration Results

WRCOG Streetlight Viewer

WRCOG maintains a GIS layer and dataset to assist participating agencies with viewing their streetlights and associated asset information. Maps and data are for reference purposes only, features are approximate, and are not necessarily accurate to surveying or engineering standards

Streetlights in the News

Check out recent news articles featuring the Regional Streetlight Program.

Resources

ANSI/IES RP-8-25 Recommended Practice: Lighting Roadway and Parking Facilities. This Recommended Practice is a compilation of lighting design techniques and criteria, all offered for quality roadway lighting solutions and is intended as a basis for the design and installation of roadway lighting and associated systems.
California Street Light Association. The California Streetlight Association (CALSLA) is a statewide association that is committed to maintain fair and equitable streetlight electric rates and facilities charges, and disseminating streetlight related information.